While the United States is mired in one Donald Trump controversy after another, much of the rest of the industrialized world is steadily moving into the future. Other nations can’t ignore America, but they can try to figure out new ways to proceed with less American involvement, and many of them are doing just that. China, in particular, is taking advantage of this situation, and that’s especially true when it comes to renewable energy.
China has been leading the world in the production of renewable energy components for years, and it will only become more dominant in the sector as the United States withdraws from it. More than just withdrawing from what other countries see as the future of energy, the Trump administration is reportedly telling our European allies that climate change is “overhyped,” and to stop worrying about it so much and join the administration’s fossil fuel agenda.
“It’s going to have exactly the opposite effect,” David Victor, a distinguished professor of innovation and public policy at the University of California, San Diego, tells Rolling Stone. “Trump. 2.0 is like Trump 1.0 in the sense that they do things and then the reaction from the rest of the world is to do the opposite.”
At the United Nations on Tuesday, Trump went on a bizarre rant about climate change and renewable energy, which he loves to attack whenever he can. The president railed against wind power, called the idea of a carbon footprint a “hoax,” and told diplomats from around the world: “If you don’t get away from this green scam, your country is going to fail.”
As for China, the country is continuing to produce massive amounts of components for solar energy, wind energy, and battery storage. It’s also producing a huge number of affordable, trendy electric vehicles. China has invested more than $625 billion in clean energy last year, and the country has been investing hundreds of billions into its EV industry.
“They have so much capacity that they’re exporting products at really low prices,” says David Hart, a senior fellow for climate and energy at the Council on Foreign Relations. “This is causing many other countries to adopt, especially solar, really quickly.”
Thanks to the fact China’s government under President Xi Jinping has near total control over the country’s economy, it can basically move in whatever direction he wants it to, and he’s betting big on the future of renewable energy. He has made it clear he wants China to dominate in this space for years to come.
“That’s the thing about authoritarian governments. If they decide to do something and they really put their mind to it, they can turn much quicker than less authoritarian governments are used to,” says Catherine Wolfram, a professor of energy and applied economics at MIT. “China has pretty clearly decided that that’s where the world is going and has invested heavily in electric vehicles.”
The Chinese car company BYD has been getting a lot of attention lately, because it’s producing attractive EVs and hybrids that are affordable, dependable, and stylish. The company has over twice the global market share of Tesla, and it is quickly gaining traction in Europe — but it likely won’t be selling cars in the U.S. anytime soon.
“They are aggressive competitors, especially for lower cost vehicles. It’s incredible what they’ve done,” Victor says. “Europe and America have had two very different strategies. The European strategy has been to allow them in, but to kind of keep an eye on it, and then boom, they’ve come. … The U.S. strategy has been that almost no Chinese EVs are sold in the United States.”
China’s success can be seen as good news if you care about the world transitioning to clean energy. It’s not such good news if you care about the U.S. remaining economically competitive on the world stage in the future. While other industrialized nations are making progress in building the markets of the future, the U.S. is slowing its pace and forcing reliance on antiquated fossil fuel technology.
“If we slow down, we’re not walking away from renewables. The fundamentals are still there,” Victor says. “The overall effect of it is we’re going to just deploy fewer renewables.”
The U.S. isn’t completely giving up on clean energy. It’s integrated into the economy, and many American clean energy companies are doing well. However, at a time when the renewable energy sector is moving quickly and large sums of money are being invested, the U.S. is essentially ceding the space to other world powers. While China is investing billions, the Trump administration is withdrawing billions of dollars of federal funding from renewable energy projects around the country.
If the U.S. decides to shift gears in the not-too-distant future and wants to increase its share of the renewable energy market, it may want to cooperate with China to some degree, rather than just trying to beat it. Wolfram says she thinks that could actually become a beneficial relationship.
“Outright competition might not be in the best interest of the U.S., because we are so far behind,” Wolfram says. “Maybe some kind of joint ventures or more cooperative approaches will make sense in the future. The U.S. is really good at innovating. We can work together.”
Whether that ends up being the right move, the Trump administration is clearly putting the country in a position where it will have to play catch up in the future. Furthermore, considering the U.S. is one of the largest climate polluters in the world, it’s actively making the fight against climate change substantially more difficult for the rest of the world. Trump reminded everyone in his address at the UN on Tuesday that as long as he’s in charge, the U.S. will remain a disruptive force.
